The Middle East: No Longer As Important as it Used to Be?

The Middle East: No Longer As Important as it Used to Be?

Several factors have combined to diminish its importance, at the elite and public level, including the disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a new definition of homeland security in which the threat of virus is much greater than Jihadi or white nationalist terror, the diminishing importance of Arab hydrocarbons; a renewed focus on China; and above all the importance of fixing America’s broken house. Crises are always possible that might draw America in. And that’s why if Biden’s Administration focuses on anything, it will be Iran and an effort to defuse issues that could prompt war. Recent developments in the Israeli-Palestinian arena suggest that without some move by the Palestinians or Israel, the new Administration is unlikely to spend a great deal of time on this issue.

Aaron David Miller is a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former State Department Middle East analyst and negotiator in Republican and Democratic Administrations. He is a CNN Global Affairs Analyst and the author most recently of “The End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have (and Doesn’t Want ) Another Great President.”